


expectations

by liionne



Series: horrifying house guests [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, Domestic Avengers, Kinda, Love Bites, M/M, Minor Violence, Swearing, and steve is a potty mouth, basically bucky and steve are the worst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 16:45:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2157915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Bucky move into Avengers Tower, and subsequently ruin Tony's life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	expectations

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what this is tbh. It's like an amalgamation of tumblr posts I've seen in the past two months, so unfortunately I don't have links, but credit to the creators. Also, apologies for any spelling mistakes.

A year after the events of DC and the fall of SHIELD, Tony finally gets Steve and his new-but-old friend Bucky to move into the tower. It's not been easy. Steve's put off his invitation of a whole floor to himself for months, even before DC, but it seems that with the fall of SHIELD and with... something else, something Tony can't quit pinpoint.

Tony pinpoints it when he sees the Winter Soldier with his hair tied back in a little messy bun, metal arm on full display in the tank top he's wearing as he lifts a box out of the back of a car.

 _Oh_. Tony says, in his head, of course. _Right. Super secret ex-Soviet ex-assassin boyfriend._

"You and your born again boyfriend are up on the sixteenth floor, Rogers." Tony gives him a smile, that is met with nothing but a disdainful look. "If you need any help with the heavy lifting-"

"You'll help?" Steve suggests, to which he receives a snort from Tony. Out of the corner of his eye, Tony watches one of Barnes' eyebrows arch.

"Me? Heavy lifting? 'Course not." Tony smirks. "I'll call Clint and Natasha down."

"I think we got it, pal." It's the first thing Barnes has said, and his voice is somewhat gruff, like it's been underused for a long time (Tony only knows that because of his time spent in a certain cave, wherein talking out loud was dangerous, especially for someone like him, who could use 20 words when only really needing to say 2). Tony kind of gets that. But Barnes steps past him into the building like he wants nothing more to do with him, and Steve steps a moment later with a few more boxes in his arms. He doesn't say a word, just smirks like he knows something that Tony doesn't.

"Come up to the penthouse when you're done! We're having drinks!" Tony calls after them, but decides to take the other elevator, because being in a confined space with Barnes is starting to feel like a bad idea.

~*~

The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys (as Tony begins calling them just as soon as he gets to the penthouse, which used to be his own floor but is now more of a communal area) come with some expectations, once everyone has been informed of the fact that Barnes is in tow.

The first being that they accept Tony's invitation for house warming drinks.

"I thought you said you invited Steve and his friend up?" Pepper asks, sitting on the couch by Natasha, carefully cradling a glass of red wine on the white sofa - she still says the white sofas were a bad idea considering just how much Tony drinks, and now how much everyone _else_ drinks, but as if Tony ever gives up anything he wants.

"I did." Tony responds, flopping down beside her. "But he hasn't shown. Think I should pay him a visit?"

"I wouldn't." Natasha answers, her lips curled upwards in a sly smile. "They might be christening their new place. And as much as I think a blushing Captain America would be cute, you don't want to get in James' bad books."

"Because of the Winter Soldier thing." Tony assumes.

"Sure." She shrugs. "Among others."

Tony squints. Sure, Natasha's entire history is on the internet, and sure, he's read it, but he still hates it when she hides things from him.

He doesn't go to check on them, but he thinks maybe he should have- no one sees hide nor tail of them for three days, and it becomes a bit of a worry. For Tony, at least. No one else seems to care too much.

"Just leave them be, Tony." Pepper scolds him, when she finds him waiting outside the elevator. "They're just getting settled."

"What if they've died, Pepper? Huh? If Barnes and Rogers died at the hands of a toaster, and I can't go down there, how-"

"JARVIS, are Steve and James alive?" Pepper asks. Her hands are on her hips. That's a bad sign.

_"Yes, Ms. Potts. Both Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barnes are alive, and healthy."_

"Thank you, JARVIS." Pepper replies. She looks almost... smug. "See? They're fine. Go to bed, Tony."

And it takes a little convincing, but when Pepper agrees to join him there, Tony does, eventually, go to bed, and manages to forget about the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys for a good half an hour, at least.

~*~

Another expectation of the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys is that, when they do eventually venture out for food and drink, they'll do it fully clothed.

And _not_ covered in love bites.

Tony sits with Clint, Bruce and Peter, the latter two pouring over notes and theories and a lot of things that Clint just rolls his eyes at. Tony hasn't had his coffee yet, is waiting for the fresh pot, when Barnes staggers into the kitchen in his underwear.

And yeah, he's covered in love bites.

Tony blinks a few times, because he can't quite believe what he's seeing. He doesn't even know Barnes, didn't even know he was showing up but let him stay, 'cause Tony likes to think of himself as the cool colleague-cum-landlord who allows pets and stuff, but he wasn't expecting _this_.

And he certainly isn't expecting what follows.

Barnes roots around in the fridge for two seconds before he turns around, frowns, and turns his body away, back towards the door.

"Get your ass in here, Stevie."

Tony smirks, because even pre-coffee, _Stevie_ is a pretty damn stupid name for the 200 pound hunk of muscle that is Captain America, but then he actually _sees_ Steve, and he wishes he had coffee. He's just too tired to deal with all of this right now.

Steve pads in barefoot, and he's wearing sweats, but apparently forgot about a shirt- or Barnes wouldn't let him. He's blushing like a virgin as he steps into the kitchen, resolutely not making eye contact with anybody. His chest and his back and his shoulders, his neck, are riddled with bite marks and love bites, big, purple bruises all over his skin.

Tony scrambles for his phone, only to find it hidden beneath Peter's palm. Sneaky son of a bitch.

Damn. He would have noticed that if he had been caffeinated.

"We have food in the apartment." Steve argues, standing behind Barnes. Too close. He's too close. "Good food."

So he really _is_ a super secret ex-Soviet ex-assassin boyfriend. And Tony would be victorious, if he didn't feel like death warmed up.

"Nu uh." Barnes shuts the fridge door in favour of rooting through the cupboards. "Kid's got pop tarts. You never had pop tarts, Stevie? They're good." Tony knows there's a remark to be made there, something sarcastic and witty and about frozen super assassins needing warmed up, but his brain is too muddled. "And bananas- we don't have bananas."

"There's a reason we don't have bananas, Buck. They ain't the same anymore." Steve huffs, and Tony knows there's an innuendo there, but again- muddled brain.

They leave with a bunch of bananas, a box of pop tarts, a packet of bacon and coffee.

The rest of the coffee, actually.

But Tony is too busy turning around in seat to look at the scratch marks along the back of Barnes' back as he leaves to worry about that.

~*~

Another thing that they really don't expect: so much god damn swearing.

Apparently, it's something to be expected of Barnes. Tony does a back ground check, and finds a lot of Barnes' interviews from during the war have little bleeps over the sound, or little asterisks and exclamation marks and dashes. Barnes was a real potty mouth.

But Rogers- well no one expects it from Rogers.

"If you fucking blue shell me one more time Buck, I swear to god I'm going to kick your scrawny- damn it!"

Barnes snickers. Tony watches on wide-eyed from the corner. Thor sits on the other side of him and frowns down at the Wii controller.

"You put the small white stick into the wheel and it controls the car on the box?" He asks Tony, and Tony nods, looking away for a moment because he likes Thor. He does. And Thor doesn't visit all too often.

"Yeah, big guy. Try not to break it like the last one, mm kay?" Tony responds, and goes back to watching the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys.

Thor laughs softly in response, and sets the wheel down, having apparently lost interest.

"'m gainin' on you, Stevie." Barnes smirks. Natasha smirks from where she sits beside him, curled up somewhat like a cat. Sam seems to be laughing too - Sam, who Tony has decided he also likes, because even though he sees right through his bullshit he's a good guy - but he keeps it to himself.

"No you fuckin' ain't, Buck. I swear to God if you even think about fuckin' over takin' me here I-"

It's amazing how much more _Brooklyn_ Steve sounds when he's with Barnes. It's been three weeks since they emerged from their little love den, the honeymoon period apparently over, and Steve on his own is just- well, just _Steve_. God Save America, the Star Spangled Man With a Plan kinda guy. Tony wouldn't know what Barnes is like, because he never actually sees him on his own. He's not an idiot; he knows that's not a topic to joke about. Barnes has been through a hell of a lot of shit. But when they're together, Steve is almost a totally different person.

"He's comfortable." Sam explains, when Barnes and Rogers have went back down to their own floor, seemingly to argue, but probably for hot, rampant, _I can't believe you blue-shelled me and overtook me you absolute asshole how are you good at video games anyway?_ sex. Or at least, that's what Tony assumes.

"He's always comfortable around Bucky." Sam adds. "Maybe not at first. It kind of took a while. But he got a bit of his memory back, figured out who he was now, who he wanted to be- turns out that's a person Steve could still love."

"Still love?" Tony asks. "What're you talking about, _still_? My dad knew those guys. Said a lot of nice things about 'em considering they're both assholes, but he never said they were... y'know."

"It was illegal, Tony." Natasha says. She's knitting now, her feet in Clint's lap as he holds her ball of yarn, having taken Barnes' seat. "No one would have known."

Tony squints. He always squints when he thinks.

He sighs. He's going to have to do more research into Barnes and Rogers. The _old_ Barnes and Rogers.

~*~

The last two things Tony expects (because it's not everyone, apparently, it's literally just him) are simple: that Barnes is so good at hacking, and that he's not afraid to punch people.

Although why he wasn't expecting the last one, he's unsure.

Rogers sits reading To Kill A Mockingbird on the couch beside Darcy, who is leaning against Peter whilst they watch some sci fi action rom com thing that neither Tony nor Steve are paying any attention to. In fact, Tony is standing fixing the Dunce's cap on Dum-E's head, because he just keeps knocking it off.

When the elevator door opens, he thinks nothing of it. He never does, now. But when Barnes comes storming across the room towards him, and punches him square in the jaw, then he thinks something of it.

Well. All he actually thinks it _fuck_.

"How fuckin' dare you." Barnes spits, and he's seething. There's clear, hot anger in his eyes. "How fuckin' dare you say everythin' special about him came out of a _bottle_ , how fuckin' dare you, you didn't even know him then, you didn't even-"

"How did you find out about that?" Tony asks, his voice a little squeaky and a little raspy, and he's pretty sure Barnes is about to punch him again when he goes for pinning him against the wall instead. It's not really an improvement. Not at all.

"Bucky."

Rogers has apparently crossed the room in a heartbeat, because he's now got a hold of Barnes' metal hand and it trying to edge between them, put himself between his super secret ex-Soviet ex-assassin boyfriend and his colleague-cum-landlord. It's not working. Barnes is pretty stubborn.

"He was the best. He was the _best_ guy. You're fuckin' wrong if you think otherwise and I swear to god if I ever hear you say somethin' like that again-"

"Buck, he didn't mean it." Steve murmurs. "He didn't mean it, it was a fight, it doesn't matter."

"James. James, it's okay." Natasha stands just behind Steve, guarded by his shoulder, be she could be around him to take Barnes down in no time.

"He was ten times better than you even _before_ the serum, pal. You fuckin' say anythin' like that again-"

He lets him go, and Tony gasps, back hitting the wall hard. Steve manages to push Bucky back, hands pressed to his chest, and Natasha steps forward to check that Tony's alright.

"You're lucky he used his regular hand." She says, and Tony can't help but agree. And for that fact, he lets the lovebirds stay. 

**Author's Note:**

> Aplogies also for any mis-characterisations, but I think I did okay. Could probably improve. As per usual, I'm over at http://captainspxngles.tumblr.com if needed!


End file.
